Recently I have been experimenting in becoming a quasi-vegetarian. There had been in the past heated debate between my friends and I on how healthy, or rather not healthy some vegetarian dishes are. Granted. San meat does not mean that it is good for health. To take one level up, recently I have been experimenting with organic vegetarian food. And there is one that I frequently visit, with Cynthia, because the restaurant is near to our Spanish school. To be frank, Cynthia is not too keen on the dishes. For me, when it comes to new experiences, my mind is pretty open. And I think the “Vegetable Noodle with Soup” dish has put my open mind to the test.
Having tried almost all their menu times, I was curious on what “Vegetable Noodle with Soup” tastes like. The amazing is, after spending close to half an hour consuming it, I have managed to deciphered how to cook it. Here is the recipe.
Step 1 – Boil the water, cook the noodle, drain the water from the noodle, and put the noodle aside.
Step 2 – Boil the water, put in one piece of organic sweet corn, a few slides of dried seaweed (there is no organic seaweed, is there?), a few slides of organic tomatoes, a few slides of organic cabbage, a few slides of organic carrots, and two pieces of organic tofu. I presume you know the order of which one to cook first (for example, sweet corns and carrots take the longest to cook).
Step 3 – Resist the temptation to add salt or any seasoning or flavoring.
Step 4 – Put the cooked noodle inside the organic vegetable soup. Bring to boil and serve hot.
When Benny – my brother-in-law – heard my experience, he asked, “Is it appetizing at all?”. I suppose that was why I took half an hour to consume the dish. And when I looked around, there were dinners who took longer than I to finish their food. I think that answers Benny’s question.
PS. Believe it or not, I am considering to add this into my regular home cooked diet because it is so easy to make.
These cannot be coincidences, the more I think about it.
If you are a man, imagine wearing or taking off a shirt with a long zipper all the way up from your waist to the back of your neck. Or from the low side of your hip all the up to your armpit. Whoever designed this concept and applied to the day-to-day fashion for the ladies, I wonder if practicality was something he or she had in mind. But if that makes me, as the man of the house, feel more useful morning after morning, night after night, I am not complaining.
Opening of jars, changing of light bulbs, hooking and unhooking of bras – perhaps there is a conspiracy out there to make us men more useful. One scene, in Gossip Girl, when Blair said the word ‘zip’ and Serena immediately sprung into action and helped out with the dressing in such fluidity, I could immediately relate.
The problem was not without warning. At first I discovered that the buttons that called the lifts were not as responsive. At times when I pressed the button, it remained dull, and nothing happened. As if determined by some random events behind the electrical circuits, the button would light up, eventually. At random. In a modern living environment going by the observation that since this was a common problem, someone would have reported it, and hence there was no need for me to take action. Perhaps that was why this problem was escalated to a second stage.
One warm afternoon, I was back from my grocery trip. Carrying with me bags and bags of goods, I could barely walk on a leveled ground. Called for the lift but none of the button worked. I waited for a divine intervention but there was none. Strangely, the lifts went up and down under their own will. At times, a human or two got spat out of the metallic container and before I could enter, it closed its mouth. How did those able to board the lift if no one could signal it to stop at their floors?
Lack of options, I walked up the stairs, carrying the heavy bags. On my way up, I saw someone on the way down. We greeted silently and exchanged a reluctant smile that did not say much but said it all. I wonder what would happen if I was 100 years old. The stairs looked indeed daunting.
Shortly after, I needed to get out of the apartment. I attempted to call for a lift, it did not seem to work. Lifts went crazy going up and down on their own. While contemplating if I should take the stairs instead, one lift arrived at my floor. I dashed inside without much thinking. Suddenly it struck me. What made me think that I could control the lift from inside? As it closed its mouth, I felt as though I had been swallowed by a crazy lift.
Year 2000, Kevin Bacon played the character of Hollow Man. Being invisible, this fictional scientist takes full advantage of his new found ability doing stuffs that he would not be able to do, including spying on his female neighbor. Rumor says that there is a deleted rape scene too. The film prompted me to read “The Invisible Man” by H. G. Wells. Imagine what I would do if I can be invisible. Imagine what you would do. That sense of invincibility. Even if one perishes, no one knows (assuming that invisibility persists through death and beyond, which I recall according to the story, it is not the case).
The opposite of Hollow Man is not any one on the street, I think. The opposite of being invincibly invisible is being visible but no one takes notice. Like fading into the background or becoming a piece of everyday wallpaper that no one stops and takes notice.
One day, I went into a restaurant alone. The staffs were busy doing the things they did. I chose a seat in the middle of the restaurant. Still, no one attended to me. I stood up, picked up a menu nearby, returned to my seat, and started reading. Quietly contemplated on what my lunch would be, I could not help but to observe that people around me were aware of my presence but liked a piece of wallpaper, I had faded onto the background. Perhaps when the lunch hour was over, when the rest of the customers had eaten, paid, and gone, the staffs might notice someone siting in the middle of the restaurant reading a menu. And they might wonder when did I step into the restaurant in the first place. Or not.
It seems to me that the only time when we get to notice, examine, and appreciate the wallpaper is when the room is empty, newly renovated perhaps.
My memory of my primary school life has been fuzzy. Of the few fragments that I remember, there were those wooden tables that we used at school, unlike perhaps the fine furniture students use today. The surface though smooth, was uneven. You could trace the texture of the wood and you could see the little holes of various sizes scattered over the tabletop. If you had a wide imagination like I did, you would picture the surface of the table as the terrain of an unknown planet. You could even draw a map and name the craters.
In my primary school days, we used pencils and rubbers often. Instead of brushing the residue of the rubber onto the floor like I suppose every student did, I had developed this craze to bury it into the little craters on the tabletop. I would press the residue hard using the end of a pencil or my bare fingers. Soon, I was busy producing residue for the sake of filling up the holes. It took a long time to fill up all the holes, large and small. When I was done with the job, I would start to dig out the residue from one random crater and fill it up with fresh residue. And the job never ended.
Unfortunately, there is no morale to this story. I think I should have studied to become a dentist instead.
Cynthia often pokes fun at my ears. She says my ears are promiscuous. I used to buy many compact disks regularly. My favorite pastime since the day when compact disk format was made popular was to camp at record stores, staring at the nicely wrapped disks trying to decide if I should buy just one more. It was an obsession, before the time when consumers rely on listening stations and online reviews to decide if they should part their hard earned money in exchange for a forty minutes of an unknown piece of music.
I suppose there is an ounce of truth for Cynthia to choose that descriptor for my ears. I suppose if you have a few girlfriends to juggle at the same time, you probably would not have a good memory on who they are, not even their names. At times when I listen to a beautiful tune playing on the radio, I would turn to Cynthia and asked, “I think I have that song in my music collection. But I can’t recall which one it is.” Cynthia would give me a standard reply that my ears are promiscuous.
What happens to the days when we could remember the lyrics and sing along with the songs?
When I share with the people around me that my phone comes with a legally unlimited music download service, some are surprised while others cannot relate. When I walk into a record store these days, I am no longer in my usual euphoric state. The entire recent collection, I almost have it. OK, I recognize the album covers, music that I have downloaded with a click of a button. But I doubt I have listened to all. It does feel good though knowing that some albums are inside my computer’s hard disk somewhere, ready to be listened to when my ears are free.
I reckon the idea of a harem full of girls is not to sleep with all, but keep some to look at.
I love summer holidays. There is a certain charm to this mysterious reference: summer holiday. It does not reveal where the destination is, or how long is the vocation. A generic reference that says everything and nothing. It often prompts the listeners to momentarily drift towards the memory of one of their previous summer holidays. Hence, opens up conversation in the opposite direction, rather than me talking about my holiday.
This summer holiday, I wish to do something different to my website. I have got Bob the Botâ„¢ to churn out contents while I am away. My personal ghost writer.
Every week, I have received hundreds of comments originated by the spam bots. I must say, some are quite entertaining to read. Some are outright encouraging. Some are bizarre jokes that even if I am to put a perverted hat on, I still cannot figure out what the joke is about, except it sounds funny. At times when my site is dead quiet, I do not mind fishing amongst a pool of spam comments to see if there is a legitimate one hiding inside while getting amused by hundreds and thousands of illegitimate ones, in a twisted sense.
Bots are going to rule our Internet one day. The density of the web is going to intensified by the bots that do not need to eat or sleep, busy copying contents, meshing up contents, and generating random words of a multitude of languages. As for my personal Bob the Botâ„¢, I doubt if it is going to be that proliferate. I am as excited as you to find out what the bot can do. Stay tuned.
I have always said that Japanese’s imagination knows no bound. And their commitment to production quality is truly an inspiration. If I am to combine all the cut scenes from the game Final Fantasy XIII, it can easily be one beautifully made anime in full HD glory (1080p). It takes me 80 hours to see the ending (still not completing the game yet) and I have lost track on how many and how long the cut scenes are. Especially in the beginning, I could literally spend a few minutes playing the game and then here comes the cut scene. It is long enough for me to make a cup of tea, finishing eating an apple, and wash my hands. As the story unfolds, the gap between the cut scenes lengthens depending on how fast or slow you progress.
Quite a few friends of mine asked if FF13 is indeed linear. To be frank, non-linear game does not mean that it is good. Linear game does not mean that it is bad. It is all about execution. In terms of storyline, there is nothing you can do to change the outcome, unlike other games. That also means that you do not need to play the game multiple times to see the complete set of sub-stories. For FF13, you play it once and be totally immersed. There is a fixed number of characters and gears you can develop, But which ones to pick is entirely your decision based on your preferred strategy. In fact, looking at the game play, the key feature that sets the game apart from the rest is that it has little to do with your reflex actions. It is the strategy you deploy prior to each battle and the ability to think on your feet every 5 seconds or so during the battle. The combat system is unique and has earned a lot of praises. There is no need to mess around with the positioning of your characters during a battle and it does not require you to frantically press the buttons on your controller to beat the enemy. At a macro level, you control the roles of your characters and switch them at one go by up to 5 defined sets created by you. At a micro level, you can choose to execute a specific action for the character that you have a direct control with. And because of the variety of enemies, you are forced to adopt a different strategy for each battle. Be it as a different role set combination, or even a different set of characters and gears.
Another noticeable difference compares to other role playing games is that the enemies in FF13 do not level as your characters level. You can go back and revisit your old foes that gave you a hard time and beat the crap out of them in seconds. Or you may get trashed by some unknown enemies that are so powerful that in the early stage of the game, all you can do is to flee. Because the enemies re-spawn, there is no shortage of action. In later part of the game, you can explore the area in any direction you prefer. Tackle the missions in any order you prefer. Or if to see the ending is all you want, you could skip the side missions.
While the enemies do not level, at the end of each battle, there is a 5 stars rating system. The more powerful you become, the target time goes down. In another word, you still need to work hard for a 5 stars rating. In some cases, it pays off to get that rating. Some of you asked if there are a lot of grinding, like other role playing games. I suppose the choice is yours. But I find it rewarding to do a bit of grinding to get more powerful and to farm materials to improve the gears.
Majorities of the battle are quite easy, I must say. The boss fights from the main storyline are often long (like more than 10 to 15 minutes of intense thinking). The boss fights from the side missions can be extremely hard. Some of the tough battles you may take a defensive stance, sacrifice the 5 stars rating, and win. Others will slab you with a doom counter if you are taking too long. A doom counter is one that you must beat the boss in 3 minutes or there will be an instant death. In short, there is no shortage of excitement. Needless to say, some are so tough that you have to further develop your characters and return for another attempt later.
Judging FF13 from the Western standard, it may fall short a bit (it is after all a Japanese RPG). But I happen to be thrilled by how beautiful the game is made – the colorful and unique environment, the memorable characters that are so easily to fall in love with, and the dramatic story development. These days, it is hard to find a non-violence game that does not come with blood and gore and sex – like FF13. If you wonder what the game play is like, here is a brief breakdown.
Part One – Stories And More Stories
In the first part of the game, you do not get to choose whose is or are in your team. It depends on how the story unfolds. There are lots of cut scenes. The combat system progressively gets more complex, a good learning curve that I like. Some comment that this part is too linear. I happen to like the fact that I am forced to learn how to cope with different characters and different team composition. In FF13, all the characters have different strengths and weaknesses. Part one took me about 30 hours to complete. It also accounts for the story of the 13 days prior to where you first started the game.
Part Two – Open Side Missions
Once you reach Gran Pulse, you get to venture to different parts of the map. As you complete side missions, portals are open to aid you in warping to a different location in the map. In this part, you also get to pick your team composition. You do not have to complete all the side missions. But they are rewarding. It did not feel like grinding to me, although I have to pass the same area multiple times. There is always something to be discovered.
Part Three – Head to Chapter 13
FF13 is divided into 13 chapters. After Gran Pulse, you can do one chapter and return to do more open area exploration and complete more side missions. The last two chapters can get pretty hard. That is where the experience (and confidence) you gather while doing the side missions pays off. Personally I love the story of FF13, although I must admit that I do not quite understand the logic of the Japanese.
Part Four – Open End Game Missions
This is where I am at right now. After the final boss of the main storyline is beaten, after the story is concluded, I am brought back to the save point right before the final boss. The difference is that I can now further develop my characters. There are 64 missions in total. Quite a number of them are designed for the end game. Missions can be retaken if getting a 5 stars rating is what you are aiming for. Or just for the fun of it.
Talking about save points, another good thing about FF13 (compares to other JRPG I read) is that there are tons of save points. You can pick up the controller, play for 10 minutes or so, stop and do something else in real life. I find that very useful.
I suppose if one is to publish a book based on what he or she writes in his or her website, the book would look something like “The Internet Is A Playground”. I have no idea if the materials are factual. What it does indicate is that the author David Thorne lives in Australia and there are quite a fair bit of reference to that country. Hence, some of you may be able to relate to the book better than I do. Nevertheless, majority of the materials are hilarious (those that I got it). One evening, inside a Japanese restaurant while waiting for our food to arrive, I showed Cynthia some chapters from the book. She read, I read again with her, and we had a good laugh. Half of the book contains email correspondence between the author and his neighbor, colleagues, his son’s teacher, and etc. Looking at face value of these emails, I would say the author is pretty annoying, may even perceive as a bully in the Internet space. I for sure would not know how to correspond if he writes to me. Having said that, if you read between the lines, the author writes with good wit and humor. Usually there is a point he wishes to make, but not directly. It is fun to read it as a third party. Hence the book title.
Interestingly, some readers point out that the entire book can be read from his website. I have not got the time to trace the chapters and verify. The website appears to have a better layout, contain links to external sites (that Tower Defense online game is insanely fun), and have extra materials (or was I reading too fast?). So, why would one want to buy the book? I suppose if you are going on a trip where Internet access is not convenient or if you are having a vocation and the last place on Earth you wish to visit is the Internet, it is good to grab a copy and have a good laugh. Be prepared for some original hilarious stuffs that blow your mind away.
Update: SingTel called me to propose waiving one month mio Home subscription fees as a token of compensation. I think it is reasonable and fair. And he mentioned that I have been a loyal customer for many years, which is true. Let’s hope that the mio service will get improved.
10 pm, it was the official kick-off 2010 World Cup. I switched on the free-to-air Channel 5 HD channel on StarHub TV. No problem. The image looked beautiful. Out of curiosity, I switched on SingTel mioTV at the same time. Black screen, no signal. Strange. I have installed the box 2 days ago and it has been working fine, so far. During half time, I played around a bit more with mioTV and realized that all the channels – live or on demand – were blacked out. I couldn’t even select an on demand channel. The menu said that the service was not available because I belonged to a business user group. Business?! I am pretty sure I am a regular consumer who wanted to watch World Cup live, free. Even for that only one match.
To cut a long story short, if you too have experienced the same issue, you need to hard reset your mioTV setup box. Press OK button, the down arrow, and the power button on your setup box at the same time. You should see all three indicators (green, blue, and red) on the front panel light up. Then release the power button and keep the other two pressed. Once you see the flashing of the indicators, release the OK button and down arrow. Your setup box should now be reset and it will take 30 to 40 minutes to boot up.
In another word, if you Google the answer to the problem, you would probably only miss 45 minutes of the match. If you wait for SingTel to pick up the call (like me), you would miss an extra 45 minutes of the match.
I am quite mad at SingTel. The helpful service consultant told me the network server was down during such an important live event. When I enquired if SingTel is going to compensate us for not being to view the live broadcast (that is the whole point of paying for cable TV, yes?), she told me that her supervisors were busy. They will get back to me tomorrow instead. I am a patience man. I am eager to hear what they have got to say.
PS. Once you hard reset your setup box, the default resolution is 564i. You can choose your optimal resolution by pressing the menu button. Go to settings, channel guide, screen settings, and there you go. Good as new.
PS. For those of you who have paid close to S$100 in order to watch World Cup on mioTV, well, good luck to you. If I have to subscribe, I would subscribe the channels on StarHub TV instead. I am starting to worry about the F1 broadcast now that SingTel has taken over the right of ESPN.
